Toyota to test plug-in Prius

Toyota to test hybrid Prius cars

Toyota announced this week a partnership with the University of California to road test two plug-in hybrid cars, a step toward getting the fuel-efficient vehicles to consumers.

The study to be launched this fall will be the first time a major automaker puts the experimental cars on US roads. UC Berkeley will analyse the behavior of the drivers, and UC Irvine will study air quality and energy use.

By plugging into 110-volt household current, the prototype Prius can cover seven miles (eleven kilometres) per charge in all-electric mode at up to 100 kilometres per hour (62 miles per hour).

"This is exciting technology that Toyota has been working on for years," Denise Morrissey, Toyota spokesperson, told AFP. "This will be a great experiment to see how the market will respond to the plug-in modification."

The new Prius will weigh one hundred kilograms (220 pounds) more than its hybrid forbear to accommodate an additional nickel battery, but other specifications will remain the same.

Toyota's choice of Berkeley as a testing ground for the daily usage of a modified Prius seems a good fit. The city just east of the San Francisco Bay, where the hybrids are as common as pick-up trucks in Texas, is known for it environmentalism and progressive politics and is one of the biggest Prius markets, Morrissey said.

In May, Toyota sold the one-millionth Prius hybrid, half of those in the United States. Sales of the Prius for the first six months of 2007 have increased 69 percent over the same period of 2006, and the company estimates that hybrids worldwide have emitted 3.5 million tons less carbon dioxide than petrol-fuelled vehicles of the same class.

Researchers at UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies will be tracking what they believe will be the behaviour of early adopters of the new plug-in modified hybrid.

"We will be looking at how people integrate this vehicle in their daily lives and monitoring behavioural response," said researcher Susan Shaheen. "I study how people adapt to new technology, how it affects their lifestyle."

Shaheen will track the patterns in usage over two years during which the prototype Prius will be placed in a company fleet where employees will drive it for both business and personal use.

The study hopes to collect data on trip distance, charging location, duration, time of day, and frequency of trips.

A petrol-electric hybrid vehicle demands no modification of behaviour, other than learning how to drive to maximize fuel efficiency, said Shaheen. "But a plug-in hybrid is a step in a whole new direction," she said. "This is different from traditional refuelling and will require some degree of adjustment."

Many consumers seem eager for the change. Shaheen has already been flooded with calls and emails from Berkeley residents hoping to be a subject in the study.

"But it is still not clear if consumers are going to be willing to plug in their cars, and adjust to the price premium of this new technology," said Morrissey. "Only time will tell."

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